The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects (Manga): Tales of Blue Dias and the Onikin Alna

After decades of war, Dias returns home as a hero and is rewarded with his own domain. When he arrives at his new lands, however, they turn out to be little more than endless grassy plains without even a single subject. Literally put out to pasture, Dias is stumped as to how to live any life other than a soldier’s. But when a horned girl named Alna crosses his path, Dias takes his first steps to being the lord of a not-so-empty frontier.

Dias is getting used to life on the plains with his new wife—er, fiancée—Alna, and they even have actual subjects now: Dias’s old war buddy Klaus, and a group of refugees fleeing a civil uprising in the neighboring Kasdesk domain. Dias is desperate to raise the population in Nezrose without resorting to slavery, but he’s about to get a visit from none other than the lord of the Kasdesk domain himself, an infamous womanizer always accompanied by a harem of slaves. Dias will soon learn that as on the battlefield, politics and diplomacy is all about seeing who’s friend or foe.

With the Nezrose Domain expanding, Dias realizes that he needs to prepare for winter, which means a more stable and self-sufficient food supply. He decides to try his hand at cultivating farmland, but he’s about to find out that nothing grows on the grassy plains except for, well, grass. Unbeknownst to Dias, however, some kind of force is at work upon the soil, and the twins Senai and Ayhan hold the key to making the land fertile once more.

Dias’s attempts at farming are finally paying off (thanks to Senai and Ayhan’s secret forestkin magic!) but he won’t be able to rest on his laurels just yet. The village needs to work out a more effective form of governance; meanwhile, the dogkin arrive with a literally monstrous surprise in tow. And outside the Nezrose domain lurks a burgeoning threat: a vengeful Princess Diane dreaming of conquest. Oh, and in the midst of all this, guard captain Klaus falls in love!

The war with Princess Diane has come to a surprising end, and peace has returned to Nezrose. Still, a domain lord’s work is never done, and Dias and Alna must turn their attention to more mundane but equally pressing challenges. First, their growing economy presents a host of issues heralded by the arrival of a new yet oddly familiar merchant. Next, Dias has to figure out how to deal with the unintended consequences of his generosity to the dogkin. Finally, Dias faces his greatest challenge ever: a big-time wedding!

Iluk welcomes Dias’s friends—and a new herd of baars! This thrusts Francis into a battle for leadership over the village baars; does he have the chops to beat his new rival? On top of that, Alna’s brother Zorg has returned to rescue his little sister, convinced that she’s been forced to marry the despicable and dastardly new domain lord. Can Dias clear the air (and stop his wife from murdering her brother) in time to thwart a dangerous threat looming over the village?